Politics and Social Media
I think it is important for politicians to utilize various social media platforms to connect with their primary audiences. It allows them to quickly connect with their targeted audience and also allow for open dialogue.
I have a friend from college who became a political campaign strategist and he discussed with me how important it is now for a politician to have a strong presence on social media. Many of the campaigns he has worked on even had their own social media manager because it was so important to the campaign overall. He also emphasized how many of the politicians he worked for still do not have the strongest grasp of social media so the ones that do have an understanding of how to utilize the different platforms are at an advantage to connecting with their ideal audience.
Personally, I do not utilize social media to engage with government. Mainly it is because it is not the highest on my list of interest so I generally tend to just read news articles directly online from various websites I use (washingtonpost.com, dailybeast.com, etc.). The only time I really connect with government over social media is with Twitter if I am to read an article from it.
Questions:
- Any new social media trends or tactics that you expect will be utilized by the 2016 presidential candidates?
- What method of social engagement do you find to be most successful?
